16,000 miles to home: part 1 (NZ)

Mt. Ngauruhoe summit. IN THE CLOUDS!

Auckland Sky Tower

   After plotting out my trip back across the world months ago I was able to explore some fascinating places, many of which I couldn't even comment on because it would give away the surprise that I was in fact coming to town the weekend of July 4th as a surprise. While away, I was so fortunate to visit some pretty colorful sights and enjoy the sounds of some interesting personalities. All in all, I traveled from Perth, Western Australia to Auckland New Zealand, to San Francisco, California. My time in New Zealand and California consisted of nearly one month of not working and bumming around mostly, a rather eye opening experience as a back packer.

   My friend Glenn (aka G$) traveled all around the South Island of New Zealand, complete with stops at the Rotorua thermal pools, Lake Taupo (IM NZ site), and the Tongariro Crossing. Most of the time it was overcast while visiting and it got pretty old honestly. One of the coolest things we were able to do was to Summit Mount Ngauruhoe on the Tongariro Crossing, which was one of the most difficult things I have ever encountered in my life. Once hitting the top of the Volcano with its perfect cone we set around and had a few beers to soak in the sights. On the way down, I thought I may literally die, after getting past the initial ice covered peak while sliding down at a very uncomfortable, potentially deadly speed, we had about 5,000ft ahead of us to reach our van. The night before our incredible journey, we arrived at the base and as I looked up, I saw the most amazing thing, stars covered the sky like a blanket, BRILLIANT!.

Rotorua Mud springs

  One thing that was a new experience for me was back packing and living in hostels, most of which were inhabited by people who barely spoke English. The last hostel I was fortunate to sleep in consisted of 12 people in one single room which was about 15 x 18 in size, what a smell! On my last day in Auckland I hooked up for a long run with Josh Rawlinson, the guy who blew my doors off at the Run Auckland 10k. This was my 4th run in 4 weeks and surprisingly I was able to knock out 2hrs and 9 minutes without falling to pieces. Thanks again Josh, it was great to meet you and your wife, good luck on your quest for sub 1:10 in November!

   Dreading the long flight ahead to San Francisco, I was so fortunate to sit in premium economy on the top deck of our 747. The guy who set next to me was awesome, a very well traveled person who was going to san fran for a bachelors party, so we had a lot to chat about. The food was great and the service was incredible, I think I had 4 jack and cokes, 1 gin and tonic and 2 glasses of wine in the 1st 2hours of the flight! (and champagne on arrival to my seat). Those of you who know me, know I can't sleep on planes so I figured why not just drink myself to sleep, well it still did not work! My adventures and pictures of California in part 2, enjoy some additional pics I took while in NZ

Sleeping Arrangement!

Rugby!

   





You read it yourself

View from the Rotating Sky Tower at Night



BLOODY NEW ZEALAND! Tales from Auckland

You can't see the outer layer of my leg is missing along with my right butt Cheek scared up!!!

Three weeks ago I signed up for a 10k road race in Auckland, New Zealand, just excited at the chance to race in another country. I didn’t know about the course or the people that had previously raced it, but I knew that the winner had run 33:59 in 2010 so I had a chance at winning. As the day would unfold I would be able to add running up a volcano twice, running through rain and mud, and having a session with medical workers to my list of things done while in New Zealand.

                The day prior to the race I decided it would be best to run from my hostel, to the race site so that I knew exactly how to get there the morning of the race. Sun was actually shining, I had just awoken from a nap and I hit the road in route for “western springs park”. After making it about 2.5 miles the roof just opened up from above and the rain just came by the buckets. All in all I ended up running 7.6 miles in order to find this park and run back in the torrential downpour. The night prior to the race I would once again wake up at 4am and fail to fall back asleep. After my flight through the night directly to Auckland from perth, I managed to not even catch 1 minute of sleep and go right into the Auckland morning. I had been lacking sleep critically, as I have been laying down around 11pm and waking up between 3 and 4am every night. The night of the race was no exception, in fact I just decided to go downstairs and have a small breakfast before the udder fatigue just begin to set in.

                Arriving at the race most likely looking aged by 10 years I had a nice warm-up and the “Run Auckland” set up looked pretty legit surrounding the start/finish of the race. I tucked away my track suit behind some tents and made my way to the starting line realizing that I could not remember the last time I had actually put on deodorant because of all of this back and forth traveling haha. The gun blast off and people all fly out in front of me, but I take my time to aim in on the 2 front runners who have distanced themselves from the pack and pursue. We hit our 1^st kilometer in 3:12 which was all gradual uphill, just a bit too fast for me but I was able to tuck in fairly comfortable. We passed 2k in a slower 3:19 distancing ourselves from 4^th place by a good margin. I took the lead and began to push the pace just as we turned a corner to look at the wall that soon we would be running up. The course was on/around a dormant volcano so basically we had to run straight up the back side of this volcano twice for the 10k!!! After managing to get pretty heavily into oxygen debt the top 2 runners hit the 5k mark just in front of me while I was happily surprised to be a 16:53 with that climb.

                Now for the juicy part of the days racing! I had 2^nd place in my sights as the eventual winner just broke both of us. This time we had to run around all of the 5k runners who were released 15 minutes after our race, what a chore! These people blocked the sidewalks completely so it was a zig zag for literally 5k which slowed all of us down and drained any extra energy that we could have had. As I approached the climb once again, my spirit was broken from the fantasy of winning, I could hear some foot steps behind me, then I heard breathing. Breathing from a little boy or a girl, holy crap! I knew that there was a local woman who had been winning some of the races overall in some pretty fast times but I didn’t think it could be her, it was of course. She just flew up the volcano with her short choppy strides while I looked like a freak extending my legs a bit too long and eventually I began a nice walking pace.           Once I got to the top the woman was almost out of sight, I passed the 2^nd place guy who was bent over at the top of the hill and then heard someone quickly approaching. I found a heart somewhere inside and convinced myself to dig a little deeper and begin with some surges. I was making my way through the hundreds of 5k runners or walkers should I say. Jumping in the grass, sinking my feet into the wet muddy grass then back onto the sidewalk for a few brief steps before 2 more women completely blocked the sidewalk we were racing on. “Ok just 2k or so to go lets rock it man, don’t be a P^$$y, MAN UP!”. I am running downhill between all these people, I glance at my watch as the 9^th k clicks and I am going 4:41 mile pace at this point, woooo. Now to just plan my maneuver ahead between the 5 women half walking and running on this slippery wet surface. “I can make it between them before I hit the power pole, Oh Sh*t, I can’t make it”. So I take a sharp cut right as if I was Barry Sanders and then that’s when all hell broke loose for me.

                I am bracing myself for this mega fall down hill on this rocky pavement, BOOM SKIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. I am sliding on my right side just ripping into my knee and then I basically collapse into two women from behind almost knocking them over. They are in a panic, screaming, “oh my god are you ok, oh no, oh no!!!”. The only thing I am thinking is, “this is going to hurt later but I am not going to lose my 3^rd place, get up Chris!”. I pop up the best that I can and yell to the concerned women, “I will sort it out later!” and continue my onward drive to the finish. The guy behind me of course passes me on this stretch while I am gathering myself again so I pop in behind him. We hit the last 600m and we are running on wooden planks that can carry at the most 2 people wide and from all of the rain, the volcano surface has turned into mud and washed down onto the planks. We are slipping and sliding, at the verge of a fall at any moment, trying to dice between other 5k runners. We both slip off of the little wooden deck into the swampy mud but catch ourselves for one last blast to the finish 100m away. I know I have a lot more left in the tank so I roll past him to the line and wrap up my 3^rd place.

                After the race I look down and see blood running down my leg and people begin asking if I am ok. The medics luckily were on hand and took me inside the ambulance to begin cleaning my wounds and wrapping them up. The outer skin layer of my anterior tib was pretty much removed completely and my knee has a few nice slices that will be some sweet war wounds to talk about in the future. After waiting around for 90 minutes for awards, they do not give anything out and I may point out that they provide no food at the finish, only one bottle of water! It was a long 3.5 mile walk back to my hostel with my leg all banged up and the on again off again showers. What an experience!!!! Up next is a hiking adventure over some snow capped mountains, hopefully I can stay on my feet!

Culture: Coffee Breaks, Cricket, "Set Top Boxes" & a new PR

Life is Great Down Under!

   One profound experience that I have had while living in Perth is the frequent coffee breaks. Yes, COFFEE breaks! Not your standard, dark roast with some hazelnut but some of the tastiest lattes and mocha’s that you have ever had in your life! It’s a rare occasion that you would finish a morning jog without someone saying, “let’s grab a latte or flat white" before preparing for your day. This is my style, my friends back home know what I am talking about as well, when I was unemployed and taking a different path a year ago I often visited the local coffee shops in Dilworth to just relax, soak up the atmosphere and research my new life that I was thinking of beginning.

   I remember about 5 years ago when I on occasion made a Saturday morning run with the likes of Cathy Grable, Lori Hagemen, Sheila Wakeman, Aprille Schaffer, Julie Hardin and Kathy Abernathy, they really only met in the morning to have an excuse to have a 1hr coffee break on a weekend morning. I tried to soak it up, but I just didn’t have much girl talk for them, and most of the time they wanted to hook me up with someone, so I eventually faded away from the gossip scene(sorry ladies, you know I LOVE all of you!).  So coffee here is not percolated or drip, it is all blended with some form of milk in a latte form, it’s so good that I never even add sugar or splenda to my warm milky, caffeinated heaven. Back to the casual environment of the coffee world here, the local café/coffee shops are EVERYWHERE. Literally next to each other in the competing market which is seemingly unheard of in the US. They do have some chains of coffee shops but there are tons of independent chains which I absolutely love and support! The people are like family there, they greet you and ask you how your day is and remember you the next time you come in and recommend certain picks of their own.

   The shops are pretty much half full of people throughout the entire day around here through the weekday until everything closes and then moves to other outskirts of the town. Here is a dialogue of the culture here from many angles interpreted by Christopher Lamperski: “ ohhh mate I had a tough night last night, lets grab a coffee” “sure”;   “Work is pretty slow, let’s grab a latte down the corner shop” “sounds good let’s go”;  “ It’s 1:30pm on Tuesday and 100 degrees outside, let’s grab a mocha?” “Perfect, freakin oath!”  I have yet to hear anyone deny a coffee break at any point in their day, people really love to take breaks and to just discuss anything or nothing, and it’s AWESOME! There is a small coffee shop that used to be a horse stable tucked down an ally way in west perth that I have visited twice now and I love it. There is always one man serving coffee up in this small place, but its done up very well, but thats not the kicker! 

  The man most likely in his 50's is always playing JAY-Z, so I know this is one of MY spots for sure, makes me want to open up a replica back home!I wished back home people would take some time to literally sit and enjoy a coffee with a good friend as opposed to working to get ahead of the Joneses new LCD TV , it puts life into perspective. This may be the reason that I haven’t met one person yet who seems slightly depressed or upset about work, their family or their financial woes, because well, they appear to have their priorities most lined up.

   So there has been this huge build up about the “Ashes” match that has now begun down under for weeks. I was waiting for it to finally come to see what all this talk is about and here it is. Australia vs. England, in get this, five-----pause----wait--- 5 day matches, is this not the longest game in history? Well the before they even set foot on the turf, I figured I had better watch some cricket on TV! We did pick up an inflatable kangaroo that says “Go Aussie” in support but really, I am ready for the Basketball season to come through because its more my speed. One of my goals however is to catch a “20/20” match live, which is a faster paced cricket game that is complete in merely a few hours. Also on the agenda is to watch an AFL game in which my friend Nathan Doig is actually an official BIG TIME official.

   Next on the plate, set top boxes! I come from a culture of pop frenzy where nearly everyone has high speed internet, cable, DVR, flat screens and surround sound, which of course all of them I had in North Carolina. I had an EXTRA subwoofer connected to my surround sound to make the movie experience extra intense even. As I sit on the couch to watch TV in Perth, I am looking at a tube TV that has a broken set of rabbit ears on top with a fuzzy signal on nearly every station. We fortunately get one clear station so far called “ten” which is similar to our fox network back home and it has a few shows we watch on it. It’s actually refreshing not having the world of 1000 channels at my finger tips as well as DVR to record anything I can dream of. Most of the people locally appear to have something called a set top box, which boost up to around 15-20 stations at most from what I gather, many of which are cultural channels that may not even use the English language, so let’s say for the sake of argument, 10 channels.  Today Janna and I are setting out on an adventure to possibly purchase a set top box to provide us with a few extra stations with clear picture and sound. The kicker is that once you pay the $70 for the box, all of the stations are free, so it’s really a deal. Back home I was paying about $135 a month for basic stuff mostly but it included DVR and HD stations. While hunting for a cheap set top box, I am going to purchase some blank CD’s to burn some music on for our car rides and for the chance to play at home. My life is a soundtrack, I am always pumping music in some fashion depending on my mood it could be gangsta rap, country, easy listening, jazz or classical, so I need to have access to pumping my music up!

    All in all, I love the culture here and I can see how my good friend Cody loved it so much as well. People are very happy with their possessions and most don’t appear to be in this rat race that America feeds off of. Instead of having a brand new Lexus, people will drive a Ford and save money for the coffee shop or their vacation to the coast of some other country. I hope that I can take this attitude back home, to really soak up life and make the most of everything without putting material possessions as #1 in my life. Before I head back to settle into the “real world” once again, I have several plans to travel as much as I can. Here is a list of places that I would love to hit on my journey back home, so if you have any tips, recommendations, connections for housing, or of course want to meet me and pay for my way I would appreciate it, so that I may truly soak up my journey and place in life.

Exmouth

Bali

Melbourne

Thailand

India

France

Italy

New Zealand

Where are we going  next? Who is taking a step and meeting me?

If only money grew on trees!!!!

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Just before posting this blog, I was convinced to put my hand in the fire at a 3000m track race locally at Challenge Stadium. I ended up in 6th place even though I was seeded 13th on an estimated time of 9:05. After testing my speed, I know that I have a bit more in the tank for sure and in a few weeks I will be able to drop my time down substantially. 1k splits: 3:04, 3:06, 2:59

5k in 2 weeks! Goal to run sub 15:27

Perth, Western Australia....My new homeland with lots of Pictures along the way

View of the mountain range somewhere near Arizona

Some peaks from 30k in the air

  This entry will be a recap of my journey across the pond of sorts, while providing some new pictures and updates of my status in Australia. The 2.5 days of total travel really really took its toll on me the 1st couple of days Down Under. It hits your body so hard that its difficult to really enjoy those first few exciting days, especially for me because I only slept about 2-3 hrs over the 46 hr journey from Charlotte, NC to settle in WA.  I snapped a few pretty cool pictures of some mountain ranges from my 1st flight across the country, no significance but I like mountain ranges and I hope you do as well!

What's wrong with this picture?

 An additional note to the picture above, after settling into my window seat from the QC to LA, I kicked something with my right foot and looked down. This is what I saw, that's always a good sign on an airplane right? You pieces falling apart at my feet haha

   To the left are my new Skull Crusher headphones that really helped my trip go by a bit smoother.  I debated on ordering the official "snoop dogg" version but when I found the exact model without the Dogg father's signature on them for a cheaper price I had to go that route. These headphones nearly drown out all outside noise while providing an amplified mini sub woofer to pump out those bass busting beats that I prefer at times.

 Here is a nice shot of what I did for about 11hrs in LA while at the airport. I got into that cool swanky, "Air New Zealand VIP Lounge" and felt like a rock star for a couple hours as there were only about 10 people hanging out w/me. As the night progressed I was accompanied with about 130 other people, so i didn't feel so cool anymore but I did manage to have about 4 sandwiches, lasagna, 2 jack and cokes and 4 beers while kicking back.

 After arriving in LA, i was stuck in no man's land because the air New Zealand section was still closed due the huge time gap in the time zones. I just laid on top of my bag until people finally came out and everyone rushed to the line. This was the 1st and only place I had to surrender $50 for checking my carry on bag which was too large for the overhead bin. Due to an error, I was able to ship a 47lb bag and my tri bike across the world for FREE!!!

   After waiting for eternity, we were called from the VIP lounge and escorted down to our flight by the concierge. We were able to straight shot to the front of the line and take our seats, which was pretty cool. Since this was the longest flight that I had ever taken, i had hoped this would be a "baller" plane with all the bells and whistles.  Since I was able to get an aisle seat I was stoked because I knew I could hop up and down as much as I wanted to stretch out the legs. The Air New Zealand 767 was very nice and satisfying to me as it was a brand new plane with our own personal TV's and a fair amount of room. I was VERY FORTUNATE to sit next to a very personable couple who were flying to New Zealand for vacation to stretch for 2 weeks. They were from San Diego and seemed to be very well traveled as I spoke about heading to Malaysia as a possibility, the gentleman had even played golf there once. This flight went by very well for me, I popped 2 ambien and slept for a maximum of about 2 hours some how? I just cannot get comfortable sitting up I guess, but oh well, i watched 4 movies along the way.

Check out the h20 and mountains

2XU compression(blood circulation)

 Upon arrival to Auckland, NZ, I said my goodbye's to my new friends. I had a 7.5hr layover so i attempted to leave the airport to explore the city but was unable to do so, because a baggage snafu with my bike and bag, which took almost 2hrs to clear up.

" Ladies and Gentleman, could you please refrain from leaving your seats and please make sure your belt is securely fastened!"

  "We will be experiencing some pretty rough turbulence for the next bit, everyone must stay in your seat and buckled, especially children please!!". When this is announced 4 different times in a 5 minute span and the pilot comes over head to say the final "SIT DOWN", it is what every passenger wants to hear. Perhaps we are about to go down in flames, the plane is already shaking a good bit as it is and there is more to come? I was comforted to remember the wise words of TrySports mechanic Rob Morgan, " the plane can land with one engine, if it makes you feel any better". The turbulence passed and I managed to read for a VERY brief period before trying to take a short nap while glancing out of my window seat.

  Unfortunately I am not able to provide this blog with pictures that I snapped along the flight and post flight, some of which are humorous. Thankfully I purchased some new headphones that block most outside noise and the rattling and shaking of our luggage just above our heads did not bother near as much as it would have otherwise. The flight as a whole was the most turbulent flight that I have been on in recent memory. As this would be my shortest flight at 5 hours and 30 minutes, I fully prepared myself as if this was a puddle hopper and it went by fairly quickly, surprisingly. I managed to sit next to a guy who had some ridiculously kicking breath and he never even talked to me, he mostly slept, that's some serious breath! There were a couple of kids just a few seats in front of me, they were hopping around and laughing, usually it would irritate me but I had the trusty Skull crusher headphones!

Traveling from Charlotte I made a few notes on my PC about long distance traveling in general after I enjoyed an oh so delicious gourmet Burger King $9 breakfast combo and my experience from Charlotte to LA.

1. ·         As a favor to everyone, when I have children of my own I will not take them on flights just so people can enjoy their traveling experience. I am sitting out in the food court area of the Charlotte Douglas international airport and this baby is going buckwild while her parents are just eating away. I can’t imagine if they were on my 13 hr flight from LA to NZ, I may very well strangle someone.
2. ·         Traveling with a mini notebook makes it much easier to fit your drink & snack on the tray while trying to navigate through your PC. I know firsthand as I have a seemingly HUGE Acer Laptop PC dwarfing my tray as I am walking a tight rope with my drink sitting on top of my ACER ready to fall over at any moment.
3. ·         Noise deadening headphones have already helped my flight experience tremendously. The SKULLCANDY, “Skullcrusher” headphones I special ordered are working great minus the dead battery for my “amplified power bass boost”.
4. ·         While checking my bag and Kuota K-factor Race bike at the kiosk, my grandmother accompanied me just to assist with all of my luggage(yes I said it but she is not just any ol grandmother!). She knows how I don’t always get the fine details and for such a lengthy trip, she wanted to make sure things went according to plan for me( thanks GRANNY!). While playing 20 questions with the ticket agent assisting me, somewhere in the mix they forgot to take my payment for my luggage! So far so good, Karma may finally be helping me out!  Cody’s expense for luggage and a bike = $600, Janna’s expense for luggage and a bike = $150, Chris expenses = $0.

A

After arriving into Los Angeles, I was trying to figure the appropriate terminal to head towards since I did not yet have a ticket from LA to Auckland, NZ. After making my way out of the terminal and down the street, I ended up at Air New Zealand's check in center. Only one problem there were about 25 people sitting on the benches and the floor waiting for the workers to come out. Initially I was thinking, "Did I miss the Air New Zealand strike somehow? am I stuck here? Sweet, to the beach!". Hey when you have lemons, make some kickin lemonade right? Long story short, I laid on my bags for about 40 minutes before we were able to check in. One of my bags was too big and too heavy so i had to check it last minute and actually pay the $50 fee! I tried asking about the Charlotte Running Club discount but apparently they had never heard of it. 

  As I checked this bag in the last second, i grabbed a couple things I wanted for the flight while numerous people waited behind me. I forgot about my blanket as well as my camera chord so that I could upload new photo's from each stop in my trip! Freakin A, oh well.  Once I was in the terminal, knowing I saved at least $150 on baggage and knowing I have a 10 hour layover, I was heading right to the VIP lounge

Stay tuned for pictures to follow this post, it will be so much more vivid as well as a short video of my wait for the "air strike".